Italian Foreign Policy in the 1980s: What Kind of Role?

ITALIAN FOREIGN POLICY IN THE 1980s: WHAT KIND OF ROLE? Douglas A. Wertman M. .any have said that Italy does not have a truly independent foreign policy and that Italy is the most uncritical of America's nato allies. For example, Eugenio Scalfari, editor of the left-wing newspaper, La Repubblica, has called Italy the "Bulgaria of nato," and Enrico Berlinguer, secretary-general of the Italian Communist party, has charged that Italy is the "teacher's pet" in nato. Others contend that Italy has no foreign policy, or that its foreign policy has been beset by "immobility." Still others have argued that Italy's leaders have a "limited vision" which does not extend much beyond domestic affairs. In his book White House Years, Henry Kissinger took this view. Whatever the reason, each visit [to Italy] left me with the feeling that its primary purpose was fulfilled by our arrival at the airport. This symbolized that the United States took Italy seriously; it produced photographic evidence that Italian leaders were being consulted. This achieved, Italian ministers acted as if they were too worldly-wise to pretend that their view on international affairs could decisively affect events. . . -1 Foreign policy issues seemed to the Italian leaders subsidiary to their internal dilemma and irrelevant because they were outside Italy's capacity to affect.2 1.Henry A. Kissinger, While House Years (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1979), p. 101. 2.Kissinger, White House Years, p. 922. Douglas A. Wertman is a research analyst in the West Europe/Canada unit of the United States International Communication Agency's Office of Research. Prior to joining the USICA in 1980, Dr. Wertman taught political science and international relations at a number of universities, including the Bologna Center of The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the USICA or of the United States government. 115 116 SAIS REVIEW By contrast, a number of people have recently argued that Italy has come to play a somewhat more important international role in the past few years. For example, in early 1982 Michael M. Harrison wrote that: At a time when Britain is growing weaker, West Germany is proving to be an unreliable and even duplicitous ally, and France is drawn to a Gallic-Socialist brand of independence, Italy has become an unusually crucial American partner in Europe and the Mediterranean. Enhanced attention to the political and strategic value of a country that usually draws our interest only in crisis and catastrophe is welcome. America should, however, recognize that Italy is no longer a docile ally and is likely to pose dilemmas for American policy typical of those besetting the Atlantic Alliance as a whole.3 This article will examine this general argument over Italy's role in international affairs in the past few years and will look at some of the specific features of recent Italian foreign policy and the foreign policies of the Socialist and Communist parties. Italy has clearly been among the nato allies whose policy has been most closely aligned with American foreign policy over the past thirty years, and it has been neither a major power in nato or the European Community (ec) nor a major initiator in the international system. Its two basic foreign policy choices—the Atlantic Alliance and the European Community—were made in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and these Atlantic and European choices have since then been the pillars of Italy's foreign policy. Within these basic pillars, it has not in the past been especially assertive of its own particular interests. Specifically, it has not used its veto power or its influence to create serious problems within nato or the EC—even when its important interests were at stake. In recent years, however, Italy has tried to assert itself more and to count for more—both within nato and in the ec. The 1979 Guadeloupe summit, in which the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, France, and West Germany met for several days to discuss both political and economic issues, brought the matter to a head. Italy loudly protested...